You betcha! This is just terrifying.
I know, I know. I said no more Palin. But the election between a Presidential candidate who is one generation removed from Africa and his opponent, who’s vice presidential candidate didn’t know that “Africa” wasn’t a country, is over. I now just want to try to sound the death knell of Sarah Palin’s national political career. Whether or not the reports in the above video are true, they are believable. That is enough reason to feel the bile rise in the back of your throat.
Clearly, Alaskan’s don’t really know how to elect reputable people. First, there was Palin. Then, on Tuesday, they re-elected Ted Stevens on the heels of him being convicted on seven felony counts relating to corruption. So we are left hoping that Steven’s doesn’t resign because then Palin can appoint herself to the United States Senate. Goo! This must not be allowed to happen.
#1 by Chad on November 7, 2008 - 12:02 pm
Oh come on. She is just like you and I. She is an everyday person fighting the good ol boys network, Maverick style. She is a “real American” who is trying to put the government back on our side. Of course that dripping sound you hear in the background would be the sarcasm. I am not sure all of this is true, but it simply points out what any person who honestly ever listened to this woman talk knew. This woman was not qualified to be second in line to run this country. I was, and still am, offended that the Republican party really believed that they could sell this woman to anyone with half a brain. Pro guns, Pro Choice, and Pro Religion does not a leader of the country make. Understanding the complex issues of government and having the intelligence to reason through them does.
#2 by Patrick T. Lafferty on November 7, 2008 - 2:17 pm
I think being offended is the correct response. I am always willing to engage thoughtful people with differing world views in intelligent discourse. Of course, my minimum requirements for “thoughtfulness” do include a small bit of geography. Therefore, Palin is out in my book. Bottom line for me is that she is no more “real” America than I am and she and I could hardly be less alike.
#3 by Kendall on November 7, 2008 - 1:48 pm
I still wouldn’t count her out for 2012. Fox dubiously is going to be part of the reconstruction of the Republican party who is in the process of deciding whether Sarah should be the party scapegoat or its savior. I see it as part of their identity battle–side with cultural bigots and get the ‘base’ fired up, or go with boring old conventional conservatives. Palin herself is, if not actually stupid, at least collossally naive, but the problems are bigger than her or even McCain. The Rovian tactics of division and rancor reached their logical conclusion among Republicans themselves, and the practical shit hit the fan, too–Bush’s policies are linked, rightly or wrongly, with things like Iraq, Katrina, and a really expensive bailout. And the best that McCain/Palin could come up with was, we need to hate each other out of this mess? My only hope is that whatever decent, thoughtful human beings remain in the Republican party can pull themselves away from the gore long enough to help figure out how to fix things and stop the repitilian politics of hate. Oh, and the left also needs to work on the fixing the politics of hate (we too have been unfair to our opponents) before we mire ourselves in the 1) the gloating of a victory or 2) get ahead of ourselves and ostracize ourselves from the some 47 percent of the country that voted Red and stir them up to get somebody worse than Palin in 2012. The cynics (ultra-liberals, who I sometimes like to call the pseudoliberals because if you are truly liberal — one of the words many definitions is being open-minded and tolerant– you will have a wider range of tolerance for those in the red states and counties) say that with a democratic controlled congress, Obama will/should enact a lot of partisan policies and ultra-liberal policies, which of course the Republicans are direly concerned about. Well I’m sure the policies he enacts will be too liberal for a lot of people. And thank Zeus. But I think Obama understands that these were also the biggest mistakes of his predecessors. It was a mistake for Clinton to do that when he had a democratic majority and it was a mistake for Bush to do that when he had a Republican majority. Obama understands this history. I really believe that we need to be preaching both optimism (no more cynicism, reality is here and we’ve got hard work to do) but also pragmatism. I do believe that Obama is the one to find that tricky balance between the two. If he can’t do it, I do not see anybody else fit for that job.
#4 by Patrick T. Lafferty on November 7, 2008 - 2:32 pm
Kendall, thanks for the comment and analysis. I am not underestimating Palin’s ambition at all. She is clearly more ambitious than McCain ever was. I also totally agree that this is not time for gloating from anyone. It is a time for serious people to address serious issues. In fact, I pilfered a little speech about it. Check it out and keep the comments coming!